IRVINE, CALIF. – National award-winning firm KTGY Architecture + Planning is pleased to announce that Ken Ryan, principal and head of KTGY’s Community Planning and Urban Design Studio, has been invited to participate in the Planning Directors Association of Orange County’s 2015 Planning Officials Forum on October 22, 2015, at Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum in Yorba Linda, Calif. The event is sold out.

Ryan will lead a discussion on the “Sharing Economy” and how ride-sharing services like Lyft and Uber and web-based short-term vacation rentals services such as Airbnb are impacting cities in the region. The keynote luncheon address, “Thanks for Sharing: How Make Uber Hard Regulations Light as Air(bnb)” includes panelists Assistant Director of Planning and Community Development for the City of Santa Monica Salvador Valles and Best Best & Krieger LLP Attorney Jordan Ferguson, who will join Ryan in a thoughtful dialogue focusing not only on current conditions but also on potential solutions and future challenges.

“Innovation responding to human need is part of our natural progression,” said Ryan. “The challenge in today’s technology-driven world is the swiftness and velocity of change. Referred to by some as the ‘disruptive economy,’ decision makers and professional planners are being asked to respond quickly to pressing and important challenges and develop both short- and long-term solutions.”

According to Ryan, “Airbnb is now in 34,000 cities and is a $10 billion lodging company with no hotels or lodges. Cities are faced with issues of parties, parking, technology and free enterprise.”

“The commercial transport business is highly regulated, but now with ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft the industry is changing the way the world moves. As these companies continue to attract more providers and users exponentially, cities need to address the impacts in an appropriate manner. Not all cities are alike and one solution doesn’t fit all,” said Ryan.

Ryan adds jokingly, “It’s a challenging time for public agencies and the constituents they represent. Technology is moving so fast, that by the time everyone figures out what is going on with Uber, we will all be using driverless cars.”

Ryan has 30+ years of experience in the design and planning of complex, high-profile projects and is known for his leadership, strategic insight, creative thinking and communication skills. He has served on local and regional boards as a public official, including two-term past Mayor of the City of Yorba Linda and chairman of the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency.

Some of KTGY’s current Community Planning and Urban Design Studio’s forward-thinking projects across the country include Commerce Metro Center, a high-density transit-village near Reston Town Center in Reston, Virginia; and here locally projects include La Entrada, a state-of-the-art 2,200-acre master-planned community supporting electric vehicles and Valley wide transit link opportunities in the Coachella Valley; the ARTIC Master Plan and mixed-use project in the City of Anaheim; and El Toro 317, a 100-acre mixed-use urban destination within the County of Orange, adjacent to the Great Park.

About PDAOC

The Planning Directors Association of Orange County (PDAOC) has presented an annual Planning Officials Forum since 1996 as a cost-effective, local training opportunity for planning commissioners and city staff. The PDAOC is a not-for-profit, all-volunteer, professional association consisting of public sector planning directors of all Orange County cities and the County of Orange. PDAOC is one of the largest and oldest planning directors associations of its kind in the US.